The tax code should not be used as a tool for social engineering. Nor should it be an instrument for penalizing individuals’ personal food choices — choices that some government officials (e.g. Mayor Newsom) find distasteful.

Taxing soda pop is another paternalistic policy idea, which holds that politicians and government regulators — rather than individual citizens — should decide every aspect of what, where and when we eat. Newsom’s tax cuts against the very principle of personal responsibility.

Rather than burden San Franciscans with nuisance taxes, Newsom should take the lead in fostering an overall environment that is constructive to increasing physical activity and promoting the tools necessary to make personal responsibility the hallmark of losing weight.

The Center for Consumer Freedom describes itself as “a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.”

a front group for the restaurant, alcohol and tobacco industries. It runs media campaigns which oppose the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, environmentalists and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, calling them “the Nanny Culture — the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, anti-meat activists, and meddling bureaucrats who ‘know what’s best for you.'”